Bodies & Territories: Ecofeminist Legacy – Film Screening and Conversation

A Film Screening and Conversation with Raquel Cecilia Mendieta, Silvana Cardell, and Mey-Yen Moriuchi at Taller Puertorriqueño
Bodies & Territories: Ecofeminist Legacy brings together choreographer Silvana Cardell, filmmaker Raquel Cecilia Mendieta, and art historian Mey-Yen Moriuchi for a screening and conversation that reflects on and reimagines ecofeminist artistic practice. Silvana Cardell’s new production TERRA: Bodies & Territories will premier in June on the forested land of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in northwest Philadelphia. Cardell’s production aligns the bodies of her dance ensemble with the land, merging human movement with nature to reveal our inextricable livelihood and empowerment.
In this program leading up to the June performances, Cardell’s work will be discussed in conversation with the groundbreaking work of the artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), whose performative artistic practice embedded her own body into the land. Filmmaker Raquel Cecilia Mendieta introduces Ana Mendieta’s work through two short films, Ana Mendieta, Nature Inside (8:23 min) and Whispering Cave (27 min) for this exclusive screening. Bringing Cardell’s new production and Mendieta’s work together, art historian Mey-Yen Moriuchi will moderate a conversation on the legacy of ecofeminist artistic practice and its relevance today.
 
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About the Presenters: 
Silvana Cardell, a dancer, choreographer, and educator, has been awarded a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. With roots in Argentina and the US, she has directed dance companies and developed programs in both countries. Cardell’s performances blend dance, theater, and visual arts, and draw inspiration from her personal experiences and cultural background. Her work often addresses social issues and challenges dominant cultural narratives.
Cardell’s performances have been showcased domestically and internationally since the late-90s. Her projects have received significant funding from prominent organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage, and the New England Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and Mid Atlantic Foundation of the Arts. She is also committed to advancing dance in her communities, having founded several organizations, including EDA Escuela de Danza del Abasto, a three-year professional dance training program sponsored by Secretaria de Cultura de la Nacion in Argentina, and Sala Ana Itelman, a performance space sponsored by the Instituto Nacional del Teatro in Buenos Aires and Cardell Dance Studio in Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, Cardell has collaborated extensively with Manfred Fishbeck at Group Motion Dance Company, Myra Bazell and Madison Mario at Scrap Performance, Merian Soto, theater director Blanka Zizka and created Cardell Dance Theater and Cardell Dance Studio.
From 2009 to 2022, she served as the Director and Chair of the Department of Dance at Georgian Court University.
Raquel Cecilia  is an independent filmmaker and writer best known for her recent films on her aunt, artist Ana Mendieta. Her films have screened at film festivals, art museums and galleries world-wide. Raquel is also the Administrator of the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection and has published numerous essays about Ana Mendieta in art catalogues, most notably the essay on her experience overseeing the digital restoration of Mendieta’s moving image works on film and video in the catalogue Ana Mendieta: Covered in Time & History. She is currently working on a feature length documentary about the life and art of Ana Mendieta and was recently awarded a large grant from a philanthropic organization to help complete the film.
Mey-Yen Moriuchi is the co-editor of Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2022) which examines the role and breadth of contemporary activist art. Dr. Moriuchi’s book, Mexican Costumbrismo: Race, Society, and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art, was published by Penn State University Press in 2018, and received honorable mention by the Eleanor Tufts Award committee. Dr. Moriuchi received her B.A. in History of Art and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. Dr.  Moriuchi teaches a variety of topics, including Latin American art, art and history of Mexico, women and art, public art, and contemporary art and activism.
 
Major support for TERRA has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from Georgian Court University, and the 2025 Creative Sector Flex Fund, a program by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.